Heated debates and sharp retorts dominate Telangana Assembly session

The Telangana Assembly ignited with fiery debates on Friday as both the Opposition and Treasury benches engaged in relentless exchanges.

Hyderabad: Telangana Assembly witnessed heated debates on Saturday with the Opposition and Treasury benches sparing no efforts to put the other side on the defensive. If Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy led the frontal attack by the treasury benches on the main Opposition party, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) legislators KT Rama Rao and T. Harish Rao put up a spirited fight to highlight the weak points in the treasury benches arguments.

It was nothing short of a test of oratorial skills for the leaders who sprang to their feet to effectively put forth their arguments. Thankfully, the debates, though heated, were devoid of the invective and were well within borders of verbal decency. That both sides of the warring groups were well prepared for the war of words was evident. Tempers indeed ran high and on two occasions, the BRS members KP Vivekananda, Padi Kaushik Reddy, K Sanjay, Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, A Gandhi and M. Gopinath moved into the well. A couple of them squatted down in the well, to protest against the continuous tirade of CM Revanth Reddy.

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However, on both the occasions, Speaker G Prasad Kumar intervened and requested the agitated members to resume their seats. He assured them that opportunities to speak would be given to them. At another point of time the Chief Minister Revanth Reddy appealed to the Chair to allow the opposition members to speak, asserting that the Government was ready to listen to them. On Speaker’s advice, the agitating members withdrew from the well of the House and resumed their seats.

The sharpness of the retorts was also noticeable. While Chief Minister Revanth Reddy repeatedly accused some members of the BRS being in “management quota” [alluding to they being relatives of Opposition leader and former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao], Sircilla legislator K T Rama Rao shot back at Revanth Reddy reminding him of the criticism of the latter being from “Payment Quota”. In a pointed reply, Rama Rao shot back saying he was only recalling the statements of Congress Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy about Revanth Reddy being in “Payment Quota”. “Who lobbied with the Congress leaders in Delhi to get the PCC president post and later the CM post? Who is in the Payment Quota?” Rama Rao quipped recalling Congress leaders’ criticism of Revanth Reddy.

On another occasion, Revanth Reddy taunted his rival Rama Rao accusing him of deceiving KK Mahendar Reddy in Sircilla. This observation made Rama Rao quip likening Revanth Reddy’s emergence as a Congress Chief Minister to a snake occupying an anthill which was painstakingly constructed by Congress leaders like Bhatti Vikramarka, D Sreedhar Babu, Uttamkumar Reddy and others. Later, Health minister Damadora Rajanarsimha sprang to his feet to counter this anthill example. “In our party we have a convention of our high command nominating the leader of the House.

Earlier in the day, the BRS members were on their feet objecting to some observations of Revanth Reddy. The Chief Minister waited for some seconds as BRS members were trying to convince the Chair to give them an opportunity to speak. The speaker G Prasada Kumar was repeatedly asking them to sit down saying that they would be given opportunity later. As order was restored in the House, Revanth Reddy appealed to the Chair to give opportunity for the Opposition to speak. “I request you not to send them out [the BRS members]”. Revanth Reddy maintained that he wanted the BRS members to be in the House so that they could listen to him. “This is their punishment. They will have to listen”, the Chief Minister said.